Stapper's company, River City Construction, has a sign on the construction fence in front of the property. Work began Feb. 14, Stapper said, and will involve repairing the roof, stage, electricity, seating and everything else over the next 12 to 14 months.

"They had promised to pay our people by the end of the year. The end of the year has come and gone. They apparently waited until they got served before starting work on the building," said Kirk Reasonover, a New Orleans attorney representing investors from around the country.

The Orpheum, a 1921 Beaux Arts theater that was home to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra until Hurricane Katrina, is on the Louisiana Landmarks Society's list of most endangered buildings because the building has sat vacant and unrenovated since the 2005 storm.

After Katrina, Texas businessmen Richard Weyand and Peter Thiessen bought the theater for the bargain price of $675,000, through a company called Weyand Properties Inc., then transferred it to other corporate entities, which took out mortgages and ran up debt on the property. To beat demolition by neglect charges in 2009, they took some steps to drain the theater and secure the property, but it has never been renovated or restored to commerce.

Reid's company subsequently merged with Pacific Land and Coffee Corp., a defunct Hawaiian coffee company. In December, he changed the company's name to Orpheum Property Inc. to reflect its only asset and moved the headquarters to New Orleans, but he hasn't bothered to register the new name with the Louisiana secretary of state. In a December interview, Reid said he planned to begin a $10 million renovation of the theater in February and hopes to acquire other entertainment and hospitality properties.

While Weyand and Thiessen owned the property, they solicited investors from around the country who wanted to make money while helping New Orleans rebuild. Investors were supposed to receive regular interest payments and be repaid in full by Jan. 7, 2009, but the owners quit paying interest and never returned the principal. When Reid got involved last summer, he said investors would be fully compensated by the end of 2010, but nothing happened. In January, investors filed suit against Weyand, Thiessen, Reid and corporate entities affiliated with them to try to seize the theater and find out what happened to their money.

Reasonover is skeptical that a true renovation of the property is under way. He said he hasn't been able to find any evidence that financing is in place on the project.

"A substantial amount of money will be required to bring that property back into a condition where it can be put into service again," he said. "I don't know how meaningful it is for someone to move forward with cosmetic changes without any demonstrated ability to finance the complete renovation. I'm not aware of how that could be done at this point."

Kurt Weigle, president and chief executive of the Downtown Development District, which keeps tabs on local projects, came to a similar conclusion. "We don't have any information that suggests to us that they've closed on financing for the redevelopment of the Orpheum. That leads us to believe that they're just making cosmetic improvements to improve the outward appearance of the property, which we welcome," he said.

Stapper, the contractor, referred any questions about financing or the cost of the job to Reid.

Reached on his cellphone, Reid said: "We've started construction."

He declined to answer any additional questions and asked that a list of queries be faxed to his office. A worker at his office said the next day that Reid was out of town, and Reid has not returned phone calls seeking comment.

On Feb. 14, the same day that Stapper said he began construction, Orpheum Property Inc. issued a quarterly report online saying that the company "still has limited working capital and no certain means of access to additional fresh capital."

The report further states: "The company will need to obtain suitable financing in order to renovate the Orpheum. While the company has no existing commitments for such financing, the Directors believe that the required funds can be obtained from a combination of equity and debt financing as well as possible grants and tax credits available from the State of Louisiana and City of New Orleans in relation to the Orpheum Project."

The Industrial Development Board of New Orleans and the State Bond Commission say that they have not received any applications related to the Orpheum Theater. The city's economic development department also hasn't heard from anyone connected to the Orpheum.

The Historic District Landmarks Commission said that representatives of the Orpheum visited the HDLC on March 3 to get a certificate to repair the masonry, awning, canopy and broken glass on the property. No permit applications have been filed with the city's Department of Safety and Permits.